May heads for crunch meeting with party lawmakers

Earlier on Monday, the chair of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady said that since the Conservatives "don't have a majority for the manifesto we have put forward, there will be some changes". She moved Saturday to defuse some of the anger at her leadership style and her habit of relying heavily on a small circle of advisers by parting ways with her two closest aides, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy.

But as a meeting between Mrs May and all her backbench MPs yesterday indicated, the party remains restless, with Conservative MPs relishing the rare opportunity of stressing how important they now are in propping up the Prime Minister. "We're all hugely proud, fond and respectful of her as a person."With cheers, laughter and the sound of fists thumping tables heard in the corridor outside the Gladstone Room in parliament overlooking the Thames, her pledge to "serve us as long as we want her" was met with a "yes", at least for now".

The consequences of Ms May's election gamble were further underlined on Monday as her administration's ability to pass a Queen's Speech - the most basic test of a government's credibility - was cast into doubt.

Another MP said the apology had been "cathartic" for MPs, confirming they wanted Ms May to stay: "If the mood had flickered immediately after the election, then it is behind her again now".

Several MPs described May's response as "emotionally intelligent" in light of how she had been criticised for not mentioning the colleagues who had lost their seats in her first appearance after the election as she entered Downing Street.

Advocates of a "soft Brexit" scenario say Britain could retain access to the European single market like non-EU member Norway and allow certain levels of EU immigration.

"I find it incredibly self indulgent for the Tory party to be going for this sort of stuff", he said on ITV television.

Those now in the process of buying or selling a home may wish to pause for several weeks until the country's future is more certain; at this moment in time it is hard to tell which party will be taking the country forward.

The DUP is due to meet with May on Tuesday to discuss the terms of any deal.

Media reports said that May had also assured MPs that the working arrangement with the DUP would have no impact on issues such as gay rights.

"We now have a Parliament that's gridlocked", said John Springford, research director for the London-based Center for European Reform.

"We've just been returned to government with a minority government in effect; it's our duty to make it work, it's our duty to make it deliver for the British people".

Though she has received the backing of key Cabinet members such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis, she's faced outspoken criticism from others within her party.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams said he would not call a Tory-DUP coalition "stable", turning Mrs May's own slogan against her to brand it "a coalition of chaos".

While the bruising election campaign had not gone well, he wrote, "May led a campaign that inspired 13.7 million people to vote Conservative, in the biggest total tally of Tory votes since the days of Margaret Thatcher".

British MPs, who are by tradition not named at such meetings, told reporters that there were no dissenting voices and that the party had no appetite for a leadership election. "And she will certainly get it from me". This is the third year running that they have been accosted at stations and asked for their support, or had campaign literature thrust into their hands.

"My judgment is that they are fed up to the back teeth with all this".